About Timothy Swartz

I grew up in Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains. I spent my summers and time after school wading in the creek near our house catching tadpoles, fish., and crayfish. Ever since then, I've been fascinated with plants, animals, and ecosystems. My interest in biodiversity conservation emerged during my BS in Biology when I began to learn about the many threats that face these ecosystems and their inhabitants.

My current research focuses on understanding how biodiversity persists even in anthropogenic landscapes and habitats. For my MS research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I am studying the amphibian communities of farm ponds in southern Iowa, a region with very few natural wetlands but thousands of constructed ponds.

In my free time I enjoy birding, hiking, camping, foraging for mushrooms, and spending time with my wife, Lynda, and our two cats and two turtles.